Jane Jacobs Quotes

New ideas must use old buildings

New ideas often need old buildings.

Old ideas can sometimes use new buildings. New ideas must use old buildings.

In Paris, there has to be a presence. History becomes the most interesting when it's compared to the present. I mean there's a whole group of people that want to build new buildings that look like old buildings.

It's a shame about California, and particularly about L.A., where they've demolished so many landmarks. It's a bit of a disease there, where if anything is over 30 years old, they sort of knock it down and replace it. It's a strange town, it's this sprawling suburb, and then there's a city, the old town.

Recycling old buildings to show art is very important.

We should concentrate our work not only to a separated housing problem but housing involved in our daily work and all the other functions of the city.

I love antique architecture, so if I have any indulgences, I have owned and renovated and reconstructed a lot of old houses.

What's similar between Britain and America is the lack of good-quality civic buildings.

I love Columbus Circle. I rebelled against the construction for a while because I go back to the '70s. There was no Time Warner building. Now I've started to really like it.

In the '60s when I was a student, there was this campaign to destroy 75 percent of the old buildings in Paris, replacing them with modern architecture. I realized this as a dangerous utopia. This modern vision did not understand the richness of the city. Thankfully, such destruction did not happen.

Architecture is a slow business, and city planning even slower.

Planning cities is a necessary but risky business.

In New York City, when they develop something, they never use the old buildings. It's so wasteful. Why not use what's there?

And then, build a bustling wonderful city of the 21st century, with a restoration of a spectacular skyline, which Manhattan, of course, needs. So, that is really the design as a whole.

Eventually, I think Chicago will be the most beautiful great city left in the world.

Melbourne is wonderfully altered since I last saw it. There are some very fair buildings in it now, and things are a little cheaper than they used to be.

I definitely think New York is a very, very vibrant, wonderful city, but I certainly, of course, can't help but miss a lot of the stuff that's no longer there.

The City gets more and more beautiful every time I come home.

Part of being in New York is being able to brag about what used to be there.

Buildings like Penn Station attract our protective instincts not only because of their beauty but because we fear what will come to replace them.

I think Giuliani started a trend that Bloomberg continued with rampant gentrification, and I think it's tough because why would any city choose not to do that?

There are a lot of historical lofts in Houston, and it's amazing for me that a lot of them were built in the 1920s. I love the exposed bricks and the very industrial stuff.

Most cities are eclectic. There's a bit of medieval, Georgian, some Victorian and some 20th century. That's fine. Bath is different because it was built within 100 years or less. It has a homogeneity.

Whenever we try something new, mistakes will happen. Seemingly good ideas will fail and need to be re-thought.